City kids build city farm: Half Pint right fit for Intervale farmers

May 19, 2011

Spencer and Mara Welton run Half Pint Farm, a two-acre vegetable farm in the Intervale. They sell their produce at the Burlington Farmers Market; early in the season, they have greenhouse-grown starter plants. / SALLY POLLAK, Free Press

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Mara and Spencer Welton, high school sweethearts from Denver, didn’t move here to watch movies in their New North End home.

But that’s what the couple, who are Intervale farmers, have been doing lately: Their fields have flooded four times this spring (farmer friends paddled through in kayaks last month); farm vehicles get stuck if you try to work the land; and planting is four to five weeks behind schedule, Mara Welton, 36, said.

To cheer up, Welton remembers farming in a flood plain has certain benefits. It means there are rich deposits of nutrients in the soil, when you can get to it.

“I love my life, I really do,” Welton said. “I absolutely love what I do. When I can’t do what I do, it gets frustrating. ... Any little bit of rain appears to threaten flooding, and it makes planning very, very hard. People are counting on you, people who want to eat good food. And we want to give it to them.”

The Weltons own and operate Half Pint Farm, a two-acre Intervale farm they started in 2003. Forty percent of their business is through the Burlington Farmers Market, Welton said. They have a CSA (community supported agriculture), and sell produce to area restaurants.

At the farmers market, the Weltons run a well-attended stand on a diagonal crosswalk in City Hall Park, near the fountain. These early weeks of the market, Half Pint sells plant and herb starts: peppers, eggplants, tomatoes and tomatillos. On a summer Saturday in the height of the season, some 300 to 500 customers visit their stand, Welton said.

The Weltons are city kids who met in high school in Denver. They fell in love and decided they were done with dating.

“We were both like, Thank God, dating is over,” Welton said. “We’re birds of a feather. It was quite wonderful.”

They attended the University of Colorado, where Spencer majored in classical languages and Mara studied biological anthropology.

An American history professor with excellent intuition suggested they find work on a farm. Spencer started farm work first, after the summer of his junior year; Mara joined the following summer.

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“We both loved it,” Spencer said. “We knew: This is it. This is what we want to do.”

They joined the Peace Corps after graduating from CU, working in the Solomon Islands and trying to live off the food they grew. The Weltons, who have been married 14 years, knew they wanted to work in agriculture when they came home.

They investigated graduate programs, and found that Slippery Rock University offered a master’s degree in sustainable systems programs. They packed up and moved to western Pennsylvania.

Spencer won a design contest for a project related to wastewater treatment systems. With the prize money, he enrolled in a workshop, John Todd-style (the wastewater guru), in Burlington. Mara tagged along.

“While he was at the workshop all day, I discovered Burlington and found the Intervale,” Welton said.

When they reunited after his workshop, he asked about her day.

“I biked all over Burlington,” she said. “We’re moving here in a week.”

OK, he said.

Welton started the application process to farm at the Intervale, an agricultural zone in Burlington’s north end that is run by a nonprofit that leases land to farmers. The farmers, who use organic practices, cooperatively own and share equipment.

“I knew it was exactly what we were looking for,” Welton said. “The Intervale provided an opportunity to let us enter into the farming world with a little bit of a safety net, a little bit of support.

“And a supportive community, which is really the biggest piece of that: a bunch of young people entering farming that had experience,” she said. “This is really a unique model. There’s nothing like it. We needed to jump at this opportunity, and we did.”

They moved to Burlington in the summer of 2002, and worked at Lewis Creek Farm in Starksboro. The Weltons spent the fall and winter planning Half Pint Farm, and began farming in 2003.

They use organic practices, but have no intention of seeking organic certification, Welton said.

“We think it’s more important for people to talk to us directly, and not have a third party validate our practices,” she said.

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The name, Half Pint Farm, occurred to Spencer when he was making a delivery run for Lewis Creek, in a radio-less truck.

He had time to think, and he imagined the kind of farm he and Mara intended to build: small acreage, small work force, small produce — with a small-sounding name.

He came up with Half Pint Farm.

“We wanted to prove that two people could have a small farm that would provide a lot of other people with food, and a livelihood for us,” Welton said.

Half Pint Farm, known for its micro-greens (shoots and sprouts) and heirloom tomatoes, has achieved that model.

“I still consider myself one of the baby farms at the Intervale, but I guess we are mentor farmers at the point,” she said. “We’ve been there nine years, so we must know something.”

Best Tomato Salad Ever

The folks at Half Pint Farm in Burlington shared this recipe: “This is one of our all-time favorite recipes that we share with our Food Club CSA each season when the tomatoes are perfect. Most people never think of using marjoram with tomatoes, but it is a true revelation, and one that folks can look forward to as they plant their cherry tomato starts this month.”

Ingredients

2-3 cups multi-colored heirloom cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 cup baby mozzarella balls (bocconcini), cut in half

1 tablespoon fresh marjoram leaves, chopped

2 tablespoons microbasil (optional)

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, lemon juice, or any other vinegar you have on hand

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 large clove garlic, finely minced into a paste with a little salt with the broad side of a knife

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Cut tomatoes and mozzarella balls in half and place in serving bowl

• Make dressing: whisk together vinegar, garlic and marjoram while slowly drizzling in olive oil until dressing is well mixed; season to taste with salt and pepper